All posts in category Reading Is Fundamental

It’s been a lackluster year for Legg Mason, write Tom Lauricella and Diya Gullapalli in today’s Wall Street Journal. “The Baltimore-based money manager has suffered a litany of bad news, including a setback in its effort to find a successor to 71-year-old founder and Chief Executive Raymond “Chip” Mason, and weak performance in both its [...]

In today’s Wall Street Journal, Peter McKay writes of those who wonder whether Americans will continue shopping. “Because consumer spending accounts for more than two-thirds of the U.S. economy, any ebb in people’s craving for such things as sport-utility vehicles, dinners at expensive restaurants and golf balls would likely have wider implications, including a big [...]

Some are concerned that Dubai is doing what many in the U.S. did — overleveraging and spending too much with borrowed money, writes Chip Cummins in today’s Wall Street Journal. “Its oil production is dwindling, and its debt load is four times the average among other Persian Gulf states,” he writes. “Credit-rating companies are asking [...]

This may surprise nobody, but enthusiasm for the all-powerful super-SIV, a.k.a. The Entity, has continued to wane, according to Robin Sidel in today’s Wall Street Journal. “The nation’s three biggest banks have started to formally ask other financial institutions to join the fund, but some firms that were expected to sign up are now not [...]

Greg Ip, writing in today’s Wall Street Journal, says the Federal Reserve has other options on the table, one day after its rate cut disappointed investors, resulting in a near-300 point selloff in the Dow industrials. “A variety of steps, widely discussed in the markets, are likely to be on the table, including another cut [...]

James Hagerty and Ruth Simon, in today’s Wall Street Journal, report on how prudent borrowers are being hurt by the mortgage crack-up. “Loan applications have been so slow lately, says Lou Barnes, a mortgage banker in Boulder, Colo., that it feels like ‘our client base today is limited to people who don’t read the newspaper [...]

Michael Siconolfi, writing in today’s Wall Street Journal, notes that federal and state regulators may have missed a chance a few years ago to get ahead of the mortgage-pricing calamity through investigations into Bear Stearns, probes that were later dropped. “The two aborted cases have new resonance amid the credit crunch and resulting crisis engulfing [...]

In today’s Wall Street Journal, David Enrich and Gregory Zuckerman write of the lackluster record of Old Lane Financial, the fund started by Vikram Pandit, now seen as the front-runner for the Citigroup CEO position. “Citigroup’s goal was to use Old Lane and its well-regarded management team to jump-start the New York bank’s small alternative-investments [...]

In today’s Wall Street Journal, David Wessel has an overview of the credit-market malaise, and some of the attendant problems within it. “The Fed’s weekly numbers show that bank lending is still increasing. But a lot of that is unwilling lending,” he writes. “Some banks are making loans under old promises to finance customers if [...]

Tom Lauricella and Craig Karmin write about how Blackrock got involved in working out Florida’s problems with its investment pool, the one that put a lot of money into lousy debt and faced a “run” on its portfolio. “The recovery plan’s success depends on winning over nervous investors, which won’t be easy. But it highlights [...]

On the front page of the Wall Street Journal today, Rick Brooks and Ruth Simon detail how many borrowers with seemingly decent credit somehow ended up with subprime rates anyway. “An analysis for The Wall Street Journal of more than $2.5 trillion in subprime loans made since 2000 shows that as the number of subprime [...]

In today’s Wall Street Journal, Valerie Bauerlein looks at the investment in Countrywide Financial made by Bank of America three months ago, one that has deteriorated in value ever since. “Bank of America’s $2 billion investment isn’t quite as shaky as it may look at first glance,” she writes. “The bank invested in Countrywide nonvoting [...]

In today’s Heard on the Street column, Justin Lahart explores the notion that Europe and Asia would somehow “decouple” from the performance of the American economy, and finds that thesis may not be working out as surmised. “The U.S. is now flirting with something more severe than a mere slowdown. That — along with rising [...]

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